Butterscotch
by DeppleICk
Summary: When Rolf met Luna he was lost in the woods and she was looking for Gruby-warbs. One-shot. Very sweet.


_**Butterscotch**_

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AN// This is partly a companion to my story _A Lunar Kind of Love. _If you liked you might want to check it out.

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The first time Rolf saw Luna he was lost wandering in the forest in New Zealand. Like many other recently of-age wizards Rolf was exploring the world. He had come to New Zealand simply because it was remote and had planned to do some camping, a little hiking, and possibly hit the pubs along the coast later on. It wasn't three days into his trip that he stumbled off a trail and found himself hopelessly lost.

Then, as he fought against the forest for a way out, he found Luna.

She was crouching in the river in what appeared to once have been a very pretty dress but was now suffering from dirt and water. Tips of her long hair brushed the water, the left side kept away from her face by the wand tugged behind her ear. Her very large blue eyes gazed at the river with glazed serenity. As he stumbled towards her in a motion that seemed punishably crude those eyes had swiveled to look at him - or through him - with a disturbing owl-like quality.

Rolf had stopped dead in his tracks when those eyes landed on him. Thought left him. All he knew was that this girl who seemed almost nymph-like was staring at him. And she was beautiful. And he had a sudden thought that if a goddess ever wondered down from heaven and ended in the mortal realm the girl before him would be her. He had the sudden desire to present himself to her; to offer his endless service for just a moment in her presence. Yet, even as he thought it, he found himself doubting his worth at approaching such a creature. Who was _he_ to mar the beauty in her life? He was just Rolf: nobody.

Then, as if just to prove him completely wrong, the girl looked away from him and back to the water. One of her delicate hands rose and beckoned him closer in a movement to divine for words.

He had hesitated - did he dare? - but that hand motioned harder and his feet moved on their own to carry him to her side. Rolf knelt in the river and did not feel the cold. In fact, he felt a strange heat building in his limbs that raced to his heart and left his body tingling.

"Look there," said the source of the heat in a voice that was as dreamy as her eyes but intent like her beauty. "Do you see it?"

Rolf followed her gaze to the river trying to see was she saw but seeing only muddy water. He gazed harder and saw nothing and his eyes wandered up and down the water and he saw nothing. He did not shake his head or ask what he was looking for. He wouldn't let her know he was failing.

"Do you see?" she asked again. Rolf wouldn't lie.

"No," he answered, and his voice sounded ugly compared to hers.

"It's right there."

"I - I can't see anything..."

"Right on the river."

"I...I'm trying - !"

She interrupted him by standing up and he, startled, fell onto his rump in the water. Scrambling to his feet with more than a little red on his cheeks Rolf was quick to mutter an apology for splashing her, though he had done no such thing. He shut up when her blue eyes drifted from the river and onto him for the second him; a haunting gaze that he wouldn't escape even if he could.

"I'm Luna," she told him and his mind raised a thousand poetic thoughts and connections to the moon.

"Rolf," he croaked wishing he hadn't.

"Rolf," Luna repeated, rolling the name over her perfect lips and Rolf knew he was falling for her, if he hadn't already, and that he was a hopeless romantic who would be turned to mush if she took so much as another breath in his direction.

"I like Rolf."

Merlin, she liked his name! She liked him! _He was going to faint! He was going to faint!Hewasgoingtofaint!Hewasgoingto - !_

"Are you alright? You look a bit peaky. You should have pudding if you are going to faint. Most people recommend chocolate but butterscotch pudding works best for fainting spells. My daddy and I spend a whole week researching it once. A close second was raspberry jam."

Rolf decided he should have butterscotch pudding.

"P-Pudding sounds very nice, L-Luna," he said with a slight stutter.

"You shouldn't stutter. It's the language of rats, you know." He'd never stutter again. "Oh, balderdash, the pudding. Now, where did I put my wand? Wand?"

Before he knew it Rolf had reached up and lifted the wand tucked behind her ear, his fingers lightly brushing her left cheek. They were fire. Luna looked up at him and took her wand and her smile lit up the world.

"There it is," she said and promptly conjured a glass cup of butterscotch pudding. He ate it all even though he liked chocolate better and she vanished the cup.

"Thank you," he said.

"Look at the water," she said.

He looked.

"I can't see it."

She shook her head. "You're looking wrong," she told him. Then she pointed across the river. "Don't search for something. Grubly-warbs are very well known for their skills in hide-and-seek. Just focus on one spot anywhere on the water. They get made when you don't look and try to get your attention. The only way to see them is to not look."

He looked again, following her instructions to the letter. His eyes watered just as he thought he saw a squat scaly limp emerge blue from the water.

"Blink," Luna said.

Rolf blinked.

"I see it," he said and his face broke out into a smile. He turned to her and saw that she too was wearing a smile but hers was smaller and seemed to say a lot of things Rolf didn't understand.

"I hoped you would," Luna answered dreamily. "You're the first."

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That night Rolf and Luna camped together by the river and in the morning, though she offered to lead him to the trail, he stayed with her in the forest. For the next week they spent their time together in the wilderness. She documented creatures he had never heard of before, he kept track of her every action. He learned that she was a graduate from Hogwarts and had an affinity for rare creatures. He told her he was from America and wasn't sure what he wanted to do. She called him silly. He smiled as she laughed.

When the week finished Luna declared she was going back to town. He followed her without a word and when she left for Africa he came too.

They spent three months visiting numerous places, most in the wilderness because Luna didn't like cities much. Luna never invited him to follow her and he never announced that he was coming. They didn't need the words.

When it was time for Luna to go home they were staying in a small inn in Mexico. They shared a room but not beds and it was just in the early light of the morning that Luna turned her head to Rolf and said, "I'm going home."

Rolf just nodded. He was going too.

They shrugged on their packs and checked out. They used the inn's fireplace. He handed her the floo powder and she took his arm and led him into the flames. When he stepped out Rolf found himself in a house that much resembled the mimzy that was Luna. He met her father who didn't shake his hand but pulled him into a hug and called him son.

He didn't ask to stay. Luna didn't invite him. They didn't need the words. All they needed were two: I do.

And he did.

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End file.
